


Echoes Of Dreams Long Gone

by yaodai



Category: Corpse Party (Video Game), Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
Genre: Ayumi is too curious for her own good, Gen, and she's a Shinozaki - bad things always gathers around them, but it's not important enough to get a decent pairing tag, ghost mystery, it's mostly Ayumi and Shig being dragged around by Seiko, not exactly canon typical violence, there's a bit of mochida/nakashima in here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 03:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7741501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/pseuds/yaodai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ayumi Shinozaki was a perfectly normal student with a secret crush on a boy and a not so secret crush on all the supernatural things. Then she became unable to draw anything but a complete stranger, while the love of her life decided he liked Nakashima better.<br/>And then there was Seiko, trying to get everyone happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes Of Dreams Long Gone

Chapter 1: Farewell, My Dear Friend

 

The raindrops were heavily hitting the windows with the mindless fury of the elements since the very start of the day. The streets almost looked like they became a spider web of thin, dark rivers, with fountains of water bursting back into the air with every passing car. It was also pretty damn cold. The unmerciful winter almost torn the umbrella out of Ayumi’s hand as soon as she made a single step outside.

Gasping in surprise, Ayumi managed to grab the handle with her second hand before it dropped on the ground – or flew away, considering the strength of the wind – however it was still a constant fight with the elements and trying to find a manner of carrying the umbrella that would allow Ayumi to shield herself from the rain, while not risking breaking the umbrella. Ayumi considered just closing it several times, because then walking would be better, but it also would mean, that she would lose all the miserable cover she had.

Wet or not, it was a completely different thing to let the rain hit her at the full force. She wasn't living that far from the school – and it was the reason why she ended up walking hope in such weather - but halfway through she was already soaked to the bone and shivering. When she finally managed to close the house doors behind her, Ayumi breathed out in relief.

Finally, there was no water hitting her from the above nor ice-cold wind trying its hardest to turn her into an ice statue. She carefully put the umbrella on the floor. It was still dripping, so closing it wouldn't be the best idea at this point. She probably should bring some old newspaper to shield the floor and a rag to clean after herself. But right now, the umbrella wasn't the only thing dripping. Ayumi's skirt was so wet it was sticking to her legs, her socks were absolutely soaking and she was pretty sure that her shoes also were full of water. The jacket didn't help much with shielding the shirt either. It just became ridiculously heavy and would probably end up drying on the rack for more than just a day before it would be of any use at all.

Barefoot, with socks in her hand, Ayumi made a beeline to her room, leaving a clearly visible trace of wet footprints and drops of water on the floor. There she snatched a fresh set of clothing and headed straight for the bathroom. While the bathtub was filling up with hot water, Ayumi stripped and discarded of her wet clothing, sighing with relief.

It was actually much warmer when she was butt naked, wrapped only in the steam slowly raising from the bathtub. She scrubbed herself as quickly as possible and then finally climbed inside, hissing at the contact with scolding hot water. Ayumi was so cold, she was slightly shivering even after she started soaking. But now, the warmth of the water was making her feel comfortable once again.

As the cold was leaving her body, her mind started to go through the other things than the need to get out of the rain as soon as possible. For the starters she was tired, after whole day at school and then the festival afterwards. And they had to show up earlier to clean up too! Unfair, Ayumi really hoped that these slackers who managed to discretely slip away sometime before the festival ended were going to show up early too, just to make them do all the job. At least mom left her dinner in the fridge. All Ayumi had to do, was to put it in the microwave.

Though she would prefer to eat with her family - or Hinoe, at the very least - it was as good as it could be. Only because her friend changed school doesn't meant that Ayumi could just bug her parents to sit all day at home just to make her better. They both had work, after all. Mom especially enjoyed hers and she started just few years ago, previously occupying all of the time with taking care of Ayumi and Hinoe. To take it from her would be simply unfair. Besides, Ayumi was ready for this day for quite awhile. The set of her most comfortable clothing was waiting for her to finish her soaking and there was a box of ice-cream in the freezer. And a block of chocolate in her desk drawer.  
When Ayumi finally emerged from the bathroom, the rain was still hissing on the outside and it was so dark she barely could make the shapes of the street lamps on the outside.

"Huh," she muttered. "Guess the weather fits the mood, huh?"

To think that Suzumoto would not be part of their class anymore, it was just sad. The girl was always so nice and helpful, her natural charm worked even on that cold as ice Morishige! She and everybody else from the group that was the closest to Suzumoto did everything in their might to make the day to be great, but when it was finally over... it was over. Ayumi sniffled.

Of course they promised each other that they were going to call and visit and exchange emails, but it just wouldn't be the same. Suzumoto’s desk in the classroom is going to be unbearably empty – up until after the end of the year, when the exams results were going to decide who’s going to fill the place. There would be no more awesomely pretty costumes for festivals and school plays, no more cheerful chit-chat about music and drama, and stuff.

“What a downer,” Ayumi muttered, wrapping hands around her knees and fighting the urge to get up and call Suzumoto in this very moment. The poor girl was the one who suffered in this whole changing high schools in the middle of it. Was probably totally occupied by packing things too. No reason to bug her just after they saw each other! Trying to find something else to think about wasn’t working too well for Ayumi.  
No matter what she tried to occupy herself with, somehow Suzumoto always managed to get onto the train of her thoughts and take over it. Finally, Ayumi decided that it was enough and she had to switch to something else than just soaking and trying not to think about. Not being in the mood for surfing the net, Ayumi decided to pick up her pencils and occupy herself with her second favorite thing. Besides, she shyly wished to become an artist sometime in the future and she couldn’t do that if she wasn’t training hard, right?

Soon enough the pencil scratched at the paper, leaving a pattern of chaotic lines, that slowly but surely started to take that both was and wasn’t accidental. Ayumi wasn’t drawing a dead nature or using a model of any sort, it was just her imagination at work. She only decided very vaguely what she wanted to draw and then let her hand do the rest. However as Ayumi looked at her drawing a few hours later, she frowned. By all means, she was planning to draw Mochida, since concentrating both on her crush and favorite form of activity seemed to be the way to get rid of a bad mood.  
Only, the boy on the paper - he definitely wasn't looking like Satoshi at all. His eyes were too sharp, to belong to Mochida, who was always kind of soft and warm and reassuring. The face was thinner and more defined and the way he was smiling... that sneer definitely hasn't anything to do with the warm, cherry smiles of her crush.

"What in the world?" Ayumi muttered. She knew she was skilled enough for her drawings of people to be actually recognizable. Sure, she was still missing things, but not on such scale! Whoever the boy was, he was a completely different person. Definitely not one Ayumi would be interested in, too. He looked more like those self-nominated bad boys that slacked off and smoked in the toilets, because hiding in the loo was such great thing to do.

Ayumi huffed angrily at the drawing.

"I was going to draw the boy I like, not you," talking to something like that was probably a dumb thing to do, but she was all alone in her room and could rant at anything she wanted. "So why are you showing up your stupid face like that?"

There was no answer to that, obviously. At first, Ayumi wanted to just tear the piece of paper of and throw it away, but after a moment of consideration, she decided to keep the image anyway. It was a pretty good drawing, even if it came as a complete surprise.

"Guess you're lucky."

 

xxx

 

With Suzumoto gone, the class seemed to be so much more grim than usual. It was just sad without having the cheerful girl around and Ayumi could only guess how bad it was for Morishige. It was hard to not notice how close those two were together and it was such a shame for them to never really admit their feelings. And now, without Mayu out of town, Morishige was all alone in his corner of the classroom, gloomy and way less social than usually - which was quite of an accomplishment if Ayumi was to be honest. She would really hate to land in his situation. It would be just plain unbearable, to live with a knowledge that you could have something beautiful, but you were too much of a coward to actually try and catch it. So she decided to soldier up and finally do the right thing, just to not repeat mistakes of somebody else.

For the whole day, Ayumi was waiting for the right opportunity to talk to Mochida and finally confess to him. It had to be just right, so he would know that she treat him seriously. So, she couldn't just catch him during the cleaning before the lessons started or in between them. Too many people around and definitely not enough time for a serious talk about anything at all.

The day seemed to be never ending. Every minute was crawling painfully slow, like it suddenly had so much more than just sixty seconds. Ayumi barely could concentrate on the subject and the midterm exams were approaching. Several times she had to shook her head and force herself to pay attention, but her mind just keep drifting away. The world surely decided that it was against Ayumi today, because when the lunch break finally arrived and she hastily stood up, thinking only about snatching him away to talk in some odd corner of the school, she lost the sight of the boy for a short moment. And then it became clear that he already walked out of the class.

"Darn it!" Ayumi groaned and followed him out of the doors, having only a vague idea where to look for him. He seemed to like eating his meal on the rooftop, but it was pretty much November right now, so it would be really cold up there. There were also the benches on the outside, where many of the students liked to hang out and Mochida joined them from time to time. Or he could just head to the lunchroom to buy food. So many options!

Ayumi checked out the lunchroom at first, and then checked on the outside, but Mochida wasn't there. She was planning to cover the rooftop next, but spotted him with a corner of her eye when she walked up the stairs back to the first floor. But he wasn't alone. Ayumi decided to patiently wait for him to be free but couldn't quite keep herself from observing the boy.

Nakashima was standing in front of him, her face blushed deeply, her eyes sat mostly on the floor just to dart in the direction of his face every few seconds. Mochida himself looked slightly awkward too and as far as Ayumi could tell from her stop, his ears reddened, like he was blushing too. Ayumi covered her mouth with fingers, before a gasp escaped. Was Nakashima confessing to Mochida...? But she was supposed to do that, not her!

Ayumi would never ever guess that Nakashima liked Satoshi if not for what was happening right in front of her eyes. They were arguing and Nakashima was snapping at Mochida so often, almost like they were fighting for domination in the class. And now, love confessions? The worst thing of it all was the fact that it seemed to work. After Nakashima was done talking - and moved like she was about to turn around and run away, Mochida actually gabbed her hand gently and started to talk in a soft voice.

Ayumi returned to her class without a word, hoping that it wasn't what she think it was. But then they returned together and it became so much more obvious that Mochida and Nakashima were a thing from now on. Somehow, Ayumi managed to keep her tears from spilling all the time through the last lesson and the whole way home. There, she tossed her shoes away, not carrying to put them neatly in their place and ran upstairs, straight to her room, where she could cry her eyes out in pillow in peace. It really, really hurt, to have Mochida snatched away just like that, especially since she was set so hard on admitting to her feeling and confessing to him. And she was too late. A few minutes, it was all she needed!

"This is so unfair!" Now Ayumi couldn't do anything, but cry over her broken heart and stupid Nakashima, who dared to get in her way.

 

xxx

 

The classroom was a mess. There was no other word for its state, no matter how long one could go through a dictionary in search. Ayumi groaned, knowing perfectly well it would take her hours to clean all that mess up. And she had to. Knowing that lazy teacher to send her here to pick up stuff in the first place, he would just tell it was all her fault and she should put everything back where it belonged.

The documentation he wanted was on the very top shelf and Ayumi couldn't quite reach so high even while standing on a chair. It took her awhile to even manage to maneuver the folder with the tips on her fingers. She hoped it would fall right into her hands... but it missed her. And two others folders, thick with papers and old tests and everything else, followed. It wasn't enough for them to just hit her over the head and then land on the floor, no. The binding just had to broke in the worst moment possible and in the end, the whole classroom was covered with loose pieces of paper, all of them mixed together.  
Sighing with resignation, Ayumi carefully climbed off the chair and moved it to the side, trying not to step on anything. Leaving footprints on some very important documentation would be the worst.

"Okay, where's the stuff?" First of all, she had to do what she came here for, even if she would prefer to start the clean-up as soon as possible. Luckily, that file was easy to find and soon, she was hastily walking out of the classroom... just to bump into someone. Hard. Ayumi landed on the floor and a curse escaped her lips before she managed to bite her tongue.

"Woah, that's quite a language for a Class Rep!" whoever she bumped into, was making fun of her. But also reached down, offering her a hand. Ayumi grunted something under her breath and then stood up on her own.

"That's quite a mess, by the way. Spring cleaning?"

"Oh, just go away!"

"Don't be ridiculous, if you plan to clean all of it on your own, you would wind up staying here overnight."

"I don't need your help."

"You sure do."

Ayumi just rolled her eyes, but in the end, she handed him the key to the classroom and left. When she was back - and boiling with fury, after that slacker of a teacher scolded her about being so slow - and to her surprise, he was still there, already picking up the papers around and putting them on several different piles. Then her cell phone start to ringing, starting Ayumi. She almost dropped it, when she reached for it and turned the alarm off. Ayumi blinked, lying on her bed with the phone in hand for a few moments, trying to make some sense of the reality.

"Such a realistic dream," she muttered. Ayumi had to get up and get ready to school. But even as she was walking with her schoolbag in her hand, her mind was still occupied with the dream. The whole situation... it had happened to her before. It was hard to forget about the day when she was the last one to walk out of the school building, with an annoyed janitor following her, because she spend several hours on cleaning up all that mess on the floor. Even if it had happened several months ago. There was nobody to help her at that time, too.

So why she dreamed about somebody doing so? A complete stranger, too. Ayumi couldn't quite recall his face, but was pretty sure it was nobody from the Kisaragi. Especially since her dream-self talked as if she knew the guy. Ayumi was pretty sure that the stranger was male and much higher than her, too. Whatever the reason was, the dream was nice, even if it seemed far too real to make her comfortable. At the first moment, Ayumi was sure that she fainted inside that classroom and was somehow transported home afterwards and not just woke up, like any other morning.


End file.
